My presentation today is on the direct seeding of grasses, specifically, timothy in my own case and with reference to other growers in my area. We farm in the Grey Wooded Soil Zone of Saskatchewan with soil types ranging from light knoll tops to clay patches. We have been in a minimum tillage system since the early 1980's and have direct seeded peas into standing cereal stubble and some wheat and barley into pea stubble all through the 90's. Our main seeding unit is a floating hitch, warp wing Flexi-Coil cultivator with a Frigstad Force V air seeder, which is ground driven single shoot unit. Over the years, the cultivator has been equipped with shovels, knives, spoons, harrows, and independent gang packers. Currently we are in the Bourgault 2.25-inch spoon with gang packer phase.
The choice of which type of grass you decide to grow will probably depend on several factors, which may include seed availability, price return, soil type, moisture and in my particular case, weed types that may be present. Most grasses have zero tolerance for quackgrass and timothy is one of the few that quackgrass can be cleaned out of. Although as producers, we try for the cleanest fields possible, we have to be aware of potential weed problems in the soil reservoir. By applying Roundup prior to seeding, roguing in-crop and probable use of a glyphosate product to terminate production, I felt timothy was a good way to hopefully clean up a field, add fibre to traditionally low organic soils, plus use the remaining grass residue for livestock feed by a neighbour or myself.
On the field I intended to seed in 1999, my early Roundup treatment in May gave me good control of winter annuals and early spring vegetation. I used approximately ¾ of a litre per ace rate and doubled up on my quack grass patches. I now started the waiting game for the ideal time for a second application of glyphosate, because my Canada thistle was not advanced enough at first application and I wanted to make sure of the quack control.
I was still not sure of which type of implement I was going to use for seeding, but had lots of time to make that decision and lots of neighbours' machines to choose from plus my own air seeder.
As June passed by, the weeds were growing nicely; moisture was adequate, but of course it was too early for what I considered seeding time. Early July moisture was very adequate and the weeds were getting close to where control would be good. Mid-July and the moisture situation was very adequate and the weeds were growing really well. At the end of July, I sprayed a litre of Glyfos with our Computorspray and the weeds in the lower portion of the field and the heavy patches of Canada thistle were pushing back the booms on the sprayer.
Two weeks later, I borrowed one of my neighbour's implements - a 15-foot rotary mower. Two requirements of any tractor for mowing 110 acres: good air conditioning and a radio. In our MF 1155 there is no radio as the old one cracked up long ago and the air holds in at a comfortable 90 degrees. The field was still quite moist in the lower 30 acres.
At the same time we were mowing the weeds down, we were swathing the timothy field beside the one I was trying to seed. It had been direct seeded into wheat stubble with a John Deere no-till drill four years previously. On August 13, I cultivated my potential no-till field to dry out the low areas of the field.
On August 14, I mixed my timothy seed with canola for easier calibration and put this blend through our granular applicator on the heavy harrow. I was combining on my first 110 acres of direct seeded timothy as my brother came up with the harrow packer to finish my direct seeded job. He just had his angle set when we received 1-3/10 inches of rain in a downpour. No more need to pack, go fishing maybe. Due to the topography of this particular field, it was five weeks before the last of the water disappeared.
Observations I made while waiting for the seed to germinate were that even though I had cultivated the field, there was enough plant matter left from my excellent mowing job to hold most of the soil in place during the downpour of rain. During strong winds in September, only small skiffs of soil blew while the neighbours who do conventional tillage at high speeds, had soil 200-300 feet in the air and a good four miles visible down wind. I also observed some crusting on my tilled field, which if seeded the way I had originally planned, would not have been a problem.
Seed germination was slow due to climatic conditions and there was a later planting time than should be, but the crop eventually emerged and the plant stand appears good, although small going into freeze-up. If anyone has a copy of last years proceedings refer to Gord Pearse's presentation on direct seeding forages, page 105. It emphasises what I hoped to accomplish and the germination problems I encountered.
Fertilization of the new field was accomplished by fall broadcasting a blend that gave me actual pounds of 40-20-20-20. The four-year old stand received a blend that was 90-0-20-20. I must not miss mentioning that while you must assess each field for its particular traits, these can easily change. All that nice fertilizer can sure promote other weed problems to develop, in my case DANDELIONS. They love forage crops and can be very difficult to control, which I will definitely notice in my established field this coming spring as I didn't get my fall spraying done, even with the open fall we had.
My brother planted one other small field to a variety of fescue in 1999 using our cultivator unit with the spoons. In order to place his fertilizer he first banded his N, S, and K with the spoons into standing pea stubble that had been treated with a glyphosate product, then blended his phosphate with his grass seed to be able to seed with our air seeder. Moisture that particular day was again a problem with numerous showers. Crusting was a problem noticed on this field too with a clay soil type but due to the early seeding date this grass was better established going into winter.